A Minnesota woman, Kymberly Starr, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for preparing false tax returns on behalf of her clients. Starr, who owned and operated The Tax Lady in Maryland, inflated her clients' tax refunds by submitting false tax returns to the IRS, resulting in approximately $400,000 of tax loss.Furthermore, Starr obtained over $83,000 in COVID-19-related Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans through fabricated IRS forms and filed a false claim for unemployment insurance with the Maryland Department of Labor, receiving over $55,000.U.S. District.
Maryland Payroll Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Crimes and EmbezzlementA Maryland woman, Michelle Leach-Bard, pleaded guilty to failing to pay employment taxes to the IRS and embezzling from an employee benefit plan. Leach-Bard, the owner and sole corporate officer of iProcess Online Inc., was responsible for withholding taxes from employees' wages but failed to pay them to the IRS as required. This resulted in a tax loss of $2,663,264.12.Additionally, Leach-Bard did not pay approximately $207,180.41 in wages withheld from employees' paychecks to the 401(k) Plan,.
An Illinois woman, Vervia Watts, has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for her involvement in preparing and filing false income tax returns for clients. Watts, operating a tax preparation business, filed over 900 fraudulent income tax returns for clients between January 2017 and June 2023. These returns included false education expenses and business income to inflate IRS refunds, totaling approximately $1.3 million.In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins for the Northern District of Illinois has ordered Watts to serve one.
An Illinois man, Byron Taylor, of Homewood, has made his initial appearance on an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Chicago. The indictment charges Taylor with 21 counts of preparing false tax returns for others through his business, We Are Taxes Inc.The indictment alleges that Taylor prepared false tax returns for clients for tax years 2017 through 2020. The returns contained false information, leading clients to claim refunds they were not entitled to. The false information included fraudulent business losses, false deductions like medical expenses, gifts.